Horst was a great early supporter of my first project Photo Archive News and a major inspiration behind this site, the Press Photo History Project. He called me from his office (at the old central London AP building, Norwich Street) in the summer of 2003. Photo Archive News had been online for a couple of years by then and I was at my day job with a photo press agency nearby… I was standing in his office 20 minutes later.
We then met almost weekly at his office or over lunch where we would talk about the industry and would suggest small changes to the site, new features and news articles. He steered me into his vast network of colleges, many of whom have provided the deep knowledge required for the PAN and PPHP websites. His interest in the sites ran in line with a project he had been working on to record the history of the wired photo and wire photo transmission. He handed me a wad of A4 sheets one day and said ‘this is where I have got to’ – I think he intended to write a book on the subject but was already busy with various other projects. One of these was his involvement with the IMMF, Indochina Media Memorial Foundation, which provides practical workshops for aspiring Vietnamese photojournalists. He introduced me to his fellow London based IMMF trustees Sheila Brown and Peter Rimmer who were helping Horst put together an auction of photographs to raise funds for the next workshop – here is part of the catalogue from that auction – I got involved with that auction and joined Horst, Sheila and Peter as a trustee of the IMMF shortly afterwards.
Horst lived and breathed photojournalism and had time and encouragement in for anyone passionate about the subject.
Will Carleton

Our supporters

To support the PPHP click through the PayPal donate button above or call Will on:
07802 437827 or email will@pressphotohistory.com

The Project

This project is currently mapping the photo agencies and photographers of based in and around Fleet Street, with a long term plan to map all press photo agencies throughout the world.

Image requests:
While research is ongoing the PPHP provides a daily service connect image license requests (of 'orphaned images') with image owners through our network of contacts at newspaper archives and commercial photo libraries.

Why is it important?:
At the turn of the 20th century, there was vast growth in press agencies and photographers due to the massive thirst for images in newspapers. Many are still in existence but others have been sold, absorbed or simply disappeared, effectively leaving gaps in the history of this industry..

The Press Photo History Project is building a 'family tree' of the industry, which is helping to find the original owners of content. Eventually this would also provide an educational resource centred on the history of press photography. Starting with the Mapping of Fleet Street, this aims to include an index to photo agencies working in and around the 'street' and photographers memories of working lives.